Tuesday, February 7, 2017

nah, the children stay with us

Dame Tariana has spoken at a number of hui recently about her concerns regarding the Children, Young Persons and their families (Oranga Tamariki) legislation currently before Parliament.She is concerned the proposed amendments give Children, Young Persons and their Families (CYPFS) the legal power to determine who will raise tamariki Māori who have been uplifted from whānau. Under current legislation CYPFS must look to the extended whānau and hapū to place these tamariki. She says that will change under the new proposals.At the New Zealand Māori Council’s Waitangi Rua Rautau Annual Forum held recently said the devil is in the detail and concerned with amended Section 5 which includes the qualifier “wherever possible”.

Yep never mind that ANYONE has to be checked and ensured that they are safe to take the children - and that includes all caregivers. The facts are that this legislation is very, very bad for Māori.

Some background from "Hands off our tamariki Ōtaki hui, held 12 October at Te Wānanga o Raukawa and published widely including on He Hōaka

On Wednesday, October 12, a hui in Ōtaki discussed the changes Anne Tolley has proposed to the Children, Young Persons and their Families Act, removing the clauses that consider the effects of decisions on whānau, and that prioritise placing a child within their hapū or iwi. Those clauses came out of the 1988 report Puao-te-ata-tu. After extensive research around the nation, Puao-te-ata-tu found that ‘institutional racism’ was at the root of Māori social welfare problems, and predicted that the Crown would continue to fail Māori unless this was fixed. The report found that Māori succeed when rangatiratanga is recognised and supported, and recommended that Māori should be resourced to solve the problems Māori are facing...

Removing the clauses from legislation is simply another colonising act of control. The proposed changes are inconsistent with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to which New Zealand is a signatory. In particular, the changes are inconsistent with article 7.2 which recognises “the collective right to live in freedom, peace and security as distinct peoples and shall not be subjected to any act of genocide or any other act of violence, including forcibly removing children of the group to another group.”

Dame Tariana said the legislation cannot be allowed to proceed and if need be she would march.“If we can walk for our land, (and) if we can walk for our foreshore, we can certainly act for our tamariki”.She is devastated with less than three weeks out from submissions closing the new legislation severely affecting the aspirations and ambitions for all tamariki and mokopuna have barely raised a mention in the media. The Bill has been referred to select committee and the deadline for submissions on the Bill is 15 February.

The time has come - we cannot stay silent or still anymore - we will march and we will fight for our culture and we will win - WE WILL WIN!!!